Prophetic medicine and alternative medicine — what it is and its limits

The Al-Wasatiyya programme on Al-Resalah channel gave its twenty-fourth episode to prophetic medicine and alternative medicine. ^{5 6} Tareq al-Suwaidan introduced the subject by saying that people turn to this kind of treatment very widely, that seeking treatment is in his view a blessing, and he mentioned hadiths urging people to seek cures and said that taking the means is part of the sharia. ^{7 8} He noted that some people prefer it to modern medicine, and that doctors who studied for many years resent someone opening a herb or honey centre and promising a cure for every disease, some of them calling it quackery or a danger; he said his own son is a doctor. ^{8 9 10} He put his question: is there such a thing as prophetic medicine at all, and was the Prophet ﷺ sent as a physician, or as a guide, a bearer of good news and a warner? ¹¹

The presenter said the programme's viewership had reached several million across the Arab world and that the channel had begun live streaming on the internet; this is his statement. ¹² He agreed with the guests to limit the discussion to prophetic medicine and herbal medicine, leaving aside energy healing and the like. ^{13 14}

The presenter asked the channel's viewers to send text messages saying whether they begin treatment with modern medicine or with alternative and prophetic medicine; the result of that poll is not announced in the part of the episode that could be read. ^{15 16} He asked the studio audience for the main reason people turn to prophetic and alternative medicine, with three choices: it is established by shar'i proofs; its source is natural, not chemical; or it is cheaper. ^{17 18} Twenty-seven percent chose shar'i proofs, 56% the natural source and 17% the lower price. ¹

A young man in the audience argued for shar'i proof from the hadith of the man who complained of his brother's stomach and was told to give him honey until he was cured. ^{19 20} The presenter asked him: if honey and black seed are established in the sharia, how many of the thousands of items in herb shops are? Perhaps not even ten, yet people still go to them. ^{20 21} Another young man said poverty drives people to the cheaper option. ²¹

A guest with a degree in pharmacy who heads the science and health section of the IslamOnline website said all three reasons apply, the biggest being the belief that it has no side effects, and that patients with chronic diseases such as cancer and AIDS turn to it when they tire of modern treatment. ^{22 23} A guest specialising in medicinal plants said people go to it because it is natural, but admitted that some plants must be used with care and that believing natural things are free of side effects is a serious mistake, since beyond a certain point a plant can turn into poison. ^{24 25} Hisham Muhammad al-Baghdadi, of the Agricultural Research Centre and a specialist in oil crops, held that the strongest reason is the shar'i source, because people trust what is attributed to the Prophet. ^{26 27}

Dr Sayf, assistant secretary-general of the pharmacists' syndicate, said the trend is a return to nature that people call for in non-Arab societies too, after the excesses of technology. ^{28 29} When the presenter asked whether, if a patient keeps to the doses from both the herbalist and the doctor, the harm of chemical drugs is greater, he said no, that is an illusion, since a modern drug goes through long stages of study and then post-marketing monitoring called pharmacovigilance. ^{30 31 32}

Dr Abd al-Hadi, professor of immunology and fellow of the American Academy of Immunology, whom the presenter credited with 22 books, distinguished simple ailments such as colds and diarrhoea, where there is no harm in trying ordinary herbs first, from chronic diseases, which need correct diagnosis and the right dose of a treatment of proven benefit — unless the patient has reached a dead end. ^{32 33 34 35 36} He said 11 new viruses had appeared in the past twenty-five years and that drugs cannot keep pace with these emerging diseases; the figure is his. ^{36 37}

Dr Abd al-Hadi answered that there is no such thing as prophetic medicine, only natural or environmental medicine and folk medicine, and that what the Prophet prescribed, honey and the like, was the experience of his environment; he noted that al-Harith ibn Kalada was known as the physician of the Arabs. ^{38 39} The presenter related a report that Ibn Abbas marvelled at Aisha's knowledge of medicine, and that she explained that Arab physicians used to come to the Prophet in his illnesses late in life and prescribe for him, and she memorised it; he asked: is that prophetic medicine or Arab medicine? ^{39 40 41}

Dr Sayf distinguished certainty of transmission from certainty of meaning, and the presenter explained the terms for the audience: the first means the hadith is sound and established, the second that its meaning is clear and admits no other reading. ⁴² Dr Sayf said that what is sound in both respects, like the honey hadith, is acted on, but people overstate the meaning of some hadiths without basis, giving as an example the linking of the 'ajwa-date hadith to immunity, which he called an interpretation the hadith does not state. ^{43 44} He said he did not know of a branch of medicine called prophetic medicine, only hadiths related to treatment, and that many jurists have said that most hadiths in the prophetic-medicine books, including Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's al-Tibb al-Nabawi, are weak; this is his assessment as he stated it in the episode. ^{45 46}

Dr Jamil, an internist whom the presenter introduced as a regular guest of the channel with a programme on these questions and a research centre, said the term "alternative medicine" came from America, where what is researched there was counted as proper medicine and everything else as alternative, and compared it to the term "Middle East". ^{46 47 48 49} He said some forms of alternative medicine carry unacceptable ideas, citing macrobiotics, built on yin and yang; the presenter added that this is the belief of Tao, the ancient religion of China, and warned against promoting healing by energy and auras. ^{50 13 14} Dr Jamil held that modern medicine excels in acute cases and surgery, and, as the presenter added, eradicated smallpox and many other diseases; but in his view, in chronic diseases such as asthma it treats the symptom, not the disease. ^{51 52 53 54} He said his centre follows a method based on an eight-year study, having treated about ten thousand patients, which he calls "Qur'anic medicine" or Qur'anic nutrition; these are his figures. ⁵⁴ He said prophetic medicine carries no theoretical framework to build on and its items are not enough for a large number of diseases. ⁵⁵

The director of the "Royal Food Centre" in Sharjah, which treats with herbs, honey and bee stings, said chemical drugs treat the symptom rather than the root of disease and that all drugs originally come from plants. ^{56 57 58 59} He said he has no doubt that prophetic medicine exists, and that what is established in meaning is taken from it; he cited research on black seed that he attributed to a well-known heart surgeon in America, and said it can be poisonous if taken the wrong way. ^{60 61} Dr Abd al-Hadi replied that diseases are of two kinds: curable ones, such as tonsillitis or appendicitis, and controllable ones, such as diabetes and blood pressure, whose sufferers take treatment for life. ^{61 62} The presenter summed up that three of the four guests said there is no such thing as prophetic medicine, the exception being the centre's director. ^{3 63}

The presenter asked the young audience whether they had used prophetic or alternative medicine or herbs instead of going to a doctor. ^{64 65} Thirty percent said often, 45% a little and 25% never. ² One young woman said she uses mint and aniseed for an irritable colon that medicine had not helped; ^{66 67} a young man said he tried cupping for a stiff knee; ^{67 68} and another young woman said she had been taking honey alongside chemotherapy, but when she asked her doctor he told her to stop, and she followed his advice. ^{69 70} The presenter said that he personally uses none of these things, and sees no scientific or shar'i evidence that they differ from eating plenty of fruit and vegetables. ^{71 72 73}

Dr Sayf explained placebo trials: some patients are given a tablet of the same appearance with no active ingredient, and he said about 17% of them feel an improvement in symptoms that fades after a time; the figure is his. ^{74 75 76} He said he prefers the name "complementary medicine", since it complements the main treatment rather than replacing it. ⁷⁷

The presenter asked the Sharjah centre's director which diseases he treats. He said he treats simple ones, that he knows people who treat cancer, that diabetes and blood pressure may be treated with herbs, and that he treats psoriasis and vitiligo before doctors do. ^{78 79 80} Asked whether he is a doctor and whether he can tell the types of high blood pressure apart, he said he is not a doctor and cannot. ⁸¹ He said his method is cleansing the body and blood with herbs he named; when asked where their effect had been proven, the presenter pressed him for the journal or university that had published it. ^{82 83} Dr Sayf said recognised scientific research is carried out on a set number of people of different ages and both sexes, not on one or two cases that improved. ⁸⁴ The director cited a sound hadith mentioning cupping, honey and cautery; Dr Sayf replied that the hadith's soundness is not in dispute, but its meaning does not imply that cupping helps with the heart, kidneys, blood pressure and cancer. ^{84 85}

Dr Jamil said a herbalist should be like a pharmacist, dispensing what research has proven, that this does not exist, and that no one but a doctor should treat; he gave the example that rosemary raises blood sugar in animal studies. ^{86 87 88 89} He said he had asked Jordan's health ministry to set rules for the field, and that the UAE had begun licensing and testing practitioners. ^{90 91} He advised that a patient should never stop his medication when beginning nutritional treatment, since its results take three to six months, noting that red blood cells live 120 days. ^{92 93 94} The presenter asked the guests whether it is medically and religiously acceptable for people to go to pavement herb shops without a doctor, and they answered that it is not. ^{95 96}

Dr Jamil said he had taken part in a conference in the UAE on healing with the Qur'an between medicine and religion, which set rules for the field, and that he wanted to raise the issue in the media so that health ministries would legislate for it. ^{97 98} The Sharjah centre's director said he had taken courses in herbal medicine and had been tested by the health ministry before licensing, and advised starting with herbs from someone who understands them rather than anyone at all. ^{99 100} Dr Sayf said the natural heritage is not rejected in principle but must be put on a scientific footing, that it is no substitute for modern medicine, and that starting with herbs may cost a patient his chance; it is an aid in simple matters, not a substitute. ^{101 102 103}

The presenter said he believes deeply in Islam and greatly respects his reason, and his middle-way formula is simple: what is proven by the sharia without dispute he uses, what is proven by science without dispute he uses, and on what is doubtful he waits for specialists to prove or discard it. ^{104 4} He said he does not believe there is a thing called prophetic medicine, since what is reported from the Prophet on treatment comes to only four or five matters, which he would use if proven and with specialists' advice; whatever is proven by careful studies in respected universities he has no problem with, but he rejected remedies passed from one person to another, and urged that nothing be used except what is proven by reason and the sharia. ^{4 105}

The treatment claims here are what the speakers said in the episode, not medical information endorsed by the museum. The vote results are the opinions of that episode's studio audience, not representative surveys.

In al-Hadara al-Nabawiyya, Zaghloul El-Naggar treats a number of hadith on food and remedies as evidence of what he calls the medical miracle of the Sunna. ¹⁰⁶ On senna and sannut he says senna is a perennial desert plant whose scientific name "Cassia senna" comes from Arabic and that sannut is white cumin, and calls for study of a mixture of the two. ^{107 108 109 110} On olive oil he says its fats are unsaturated, that it helps prevent clogged arteries and blocks the oxidation of harmful cholesterol, and cites the cardiologist Hassan Shamsi Pasha as finding that it raises helpful fats and lowers harmful ones. ^{111 112 113 114} On the black seed he relates that the Egyptian-American doctor Ahmad al-Qadi studied its effect on the immune system and showed the case of an immunodeficient patient whose defensive cells rose after taking it (needs_source). ^{115 116 117} On dates he lists their make-up and says they keep their qualities for a year or more. ^{118 119} Throughout he calls for these hadith to be tested by systematic laboratory study. ^{120 121}